Predator Call

A few nights ago, I got a call from my buddy Scott Black wanting to know if I wanted to chase a lion.  “I guess so” was my response, for I was not sure he wasn’t joking.  “Meet me at the front gate and we will go from there” responded Scott. 

I loaded Jimmy and Lizzie, my two five year old bluetick hounds and was on the ranch in twenty minutes.  It seems that a deer hunter had seen the lion about three hours earlier that evening.  Trailing conditions were excellent, no wind and a little dew had already fallen.  If there was indeed a lion, there was no doubt that my dogs would be able to get him jumped.

I followed Scott and the hunter who had seen the big kitty to the deer blind where the sighting had occurred.  We led the two excited dogs into the mesquite where the cat had been seen.  I unsnapped Jimmy, he trotted about 50 steps away and struck with two huge bawls that only a bluetick male can produce.  I turned Lizzie loose and the two dogs commenced to steadily trail north.  Just before reaching the north boundary of the ranch, the dogs turned and trailed west to a creek. 

Once they reached the creek, they jumped the cat and the race was on.  After covering a little over a mile, the dogs made a loose.  After a few minutes of silence, I heard Lizzie barking at something on the ground.  Jimmy went to her and I could hear both dogs fighting a coon.  I got to them and put a .22 bullet in the huge boar, ending the battle. 

Jimmy left the coon battle and went back to where he had lost the kitty’s trail.  He picked up the track and left running west, to an 8 foot fence where the cat had crossed.  The next day I retraced the trail that the dogs had traveled and feel that they had the lion in a tree and simply overran it, making the loose.  When I went to the coon, the lion jumped from the tree and continued fleeing the scene.

See you outdoors!

Adios, 

Gary

I drove to Trinidad, Colorado to shoot a TV show with Fred Eichler, host of PREDATOR NATION.  I was there to represent Savage Arms as I guess I am their “predator expert”.On the first day of hunting, Jake took me to where he had seen coyotes the day before.  They were ganged up where a hunter had taken a mule deer.  The dogs were no doubt enjoying a large gut pile.  We move in about daylight and were greeted by a coyote that was sitting across a draw and looking longingly down into the area where the buffet was served.  She had no doubt observed two rednecks approaching from the east as she appeared to be watching a tennis match, going from us to the gut pile. 

I turned on the COMPUCALLER III and she wanted to go to the distress sound.  She came up the draw and studied the situation from every possible angle but her feet would not carry her across it.  Later that morning after moving to another ranch with the wind picking up tumbleweeds, we had a coyote approach about 250 yards downwind.  Had it not been for Jake this gyp would have escaped but his warning gave me just enough time to turn almost 90 degrees.  I had my Nikon Coyote Special set at 6 power and wished I had time to increase the magnification but simply did not.  I got lucky and ran the 50 grain Winchester Ballistic Silvertip through her chest.

We made a couple of calls in the 80 degree heat and wind that afternoon.   The Compucaller III produced a beautifully furred gray fox at about 20 steps.  Furbearer’s season does not open until Nov. 1, so Fred gave him a pass.  We made made a fruitless call that evening as the wind shifted from the north.

The next morning, it began to snow and did not stop until late that afternoon.  The high temperature was 31 and the low was 27 and there were 14 inches of snow before it stopped.  We were unable to make a call that day.  To make matter worse, the wet snow falling on warm ground was the recipe for sloppy roads.

The third morning, Fred, Jake and I made it to some beautiful rolling country where we found several coyote tracks in the snow.   We managed to kill three coyotes on five calls and Fred said that we had a TV show.  It was really beautiful, watching the coyotes come to the COMPUCALLER III in the snow.

See you outdoors!

Adios,

Gary